Furry Little Critters

I have been having an extremely hard time living in my home these days. I say this because the mice have been as bad this year as they were 9 years ago (our first fall) in this house.

We live in a 100 year old home, half of which is originally an old log cabin. Our basement is an old stone foundation and I believe at one point was a dirt floor that someone filled with concrete (very poorly I might ad).

When we bought this house it was a bank repo that was in total disarray and had been sitting empty for a very long time. Needless to say that with no residence in side the mice took up occupancy. We bought the house in June, gutted 90% of our home and moved in to a very unfinished home in September. Basically we replaced the downstairs bathroom, left the kitchen in tack with a few modifications (new counter tops, redone wood floors) and we had a dining room that we used as our living quarters. The remainder of our home was closed off and under construction.

Not long after our move in I keep seeing a mouse. Note to self when you see a mouse often it does not mean you have one single mouse. Oh no, as a matter of fact in two days we caught 10 mice.

They have never bothered me and we get one or two every fall. I can remember when Luke was little and being potty trained we were in the bathroom and out one walks from behind the laundry and out in to the kitchen behind the fridge. I did not react but to look at Luke and say, we have a mouse.

This year something is different with me. Evey time I come across one it scares the life right out of me. I don't get it, I don't get why this year I am so bothered by them.

One was spotted in the living room, only to go into the kitchen and have one run across the counter and stove (big scream that time). I told Eric the one in the living room was playing the look out while the other one enjoyed the pizza we had on the counter.

My next encounter was even worse. Home alone, I go to take the trash out. We keep our trash cans in a cabinet because of our dogs. I go to pull the bag out and it rips the draw string part right off the bag. It was to heavy because Thomas's pumpkin was in the can (thank you dogs for eating half of it). So I get a second bag and pull off the top layer of trash and remove the heavy pumpkin. Now I can pull this bag out as well. I pull it out and sit it on the floor to try and figure out how to tie it up before taking it out. Well before I get it tied it starts moving frantically in the bottom. Remember, me home alone? Anyway in my shear panic I grab it and fling it out onto the front porch where it spills everywhere. I was not about to go pick it up either and now I have let that stupid mouse free to come back into my home.

Anyway, since those two I have seen several more but we have not had any success at trapping them. We have had a lot of warm/cold weather mix so they are probably coming and going.

The part for me is Eric doesn't seem to care and I can't sleep at night because all I can think about is one of these things climbing across me in my bed or worse yet, one of my children.

I don't understand why I am having such a hard time this year. I do believe this year they are bad because for 9 years in this house our field behind us has always been a grass field grown for straw and is always very tall grass in the winter months (great home for mice). This year the farmer planted corn instead and the mice really started coming in after he plowed that corn field down in early October.

Needless to say, I am ready to pack my children up and move into a new home. So do you have anything that just freaks you out? How would you handle sharing your home with these furry little critters?

WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING

So is everyone ready for a three month whirl-wind tour? Get ready to be worn out because let me tell you I am worn out.

In August I started my little break. Mostly because I had lots of projects on my plate that I really wanted to give my all.

First up..... my dinning room. My husband added this beautiful wood work around my walls and I had to prime it twice, and paint it with the high gloss white. Then I had the maroon paint for the top portion.

My camera is not giving the room the justice it needs. Excuse the box in the corner it contains on of those projects we have not finished yet.

Next up, I painted a section of wall in my kitchen with magnetic paint. I also have the chalkboard paint to add but have not completed that yet. Soon....

School started and we are off to second grade.
Meet Cowboy Thomas...... Yes we bought these boots and new tennis shoes and we will not wear anything but the boots. He is in love with these things. I am thinking I need to go buy the next size up so when he out grows these we still have some boots.
Now lets head outside. This metal thing was the ugly cover that sat on top of our well in the front yard for the last 9 years. A very scary thing for a mother to have in your front yard.


Finally we have filled it and capped it off and topped it off with dirt. Big project and my back hurt for days after moving the rocks and dirt. BIG JOB!!! Oh and we did this project on my birthday. Happy birthday to me.... haha
Then I had all the tomato's that my garden produced. Sad to say but I let a lot of them go bad out in the garden. This is a fraction of the tomato's that I had.

I canned 12 jars of spaghetti sauce (two rounds of canning the sauce). I also canned six jars of salsa and 10 jars of pickles.

In my hours of boiling and canning I broke my old stove. I think all the boiling and splashing water shorted something out and broke the oven. My hubby offered to try and fix it but I have had it for 9 years and it was my mother-in-laws for about 10 years before they gave them to us.
And lead me to this.... a nice new stove. This took several shopping trips to figure out what we wanted. (stopped blogger rotated my picture and I can't get it turned back)


In the process of my new appliances I wanted to repaint my kitchen and had an issue with on of my old plaster walls. The wall had lots of cracks and issues so we took the plaster down to replace it with drywall.
Yes, this is what you find in my old log cabin house when you get behind the walls.
New wall up, and I also wanted to mention I did not stop with the new stove. I had to have a new refrigerator also. We decided to buy both since my fridge is also just as old. The new fridge did not fit where the old one did, it over lapped the doorway into the bathroom. So it moved to the new wall and I added a couple new cabinets. OK, not new but new to me and are perfect to fill the space for now. Eventually I will have an all new kitchen. Oh and remember the box in the dinning room, that is a new microwave/vent hood combo that needs to go above my new stove. I am not holding my breath for that to go up anytime soon.


Finally, we have the birthday cake that I did for Thomas third birthday. I really do love decorating my own cakes and I am learning new tricks all the time.
A lot of this was done for the birthday party we had last Sunday for Thomas.

Why are we laughing you ask? The scooby card talks and then when you close it scooby burps because he ate all the cake. If you are a mother with little boys you understand.

Among all of this we also had soccer season for Luke, I took zero pictures this season. School is back in and Luke is also taking Piano lessons through the school. Our first grading period came to an end and Luke got straight A's and I am so proud of him.

Also, I will share that Thomas has not been to the doctor since August. Yeah!!! He has been gaining weight again and seems to be doing so much better. We have added a special vitamin to our diet and either it is making a big difference or he is just getting past all this craziness.

So with all my painting, well filling, drywall sanding, gardening, canning and parenting....... it has been an exhausting 3 months.

Can't wait to catch up on everyone's happenings.

Happy Birthday!!!

Wow, it has been awhile hasn't it.

I am on here today because today is my babies birthday. Oh yes, my little guy is now 3. We celebrated is birthday on Sunday with friends and family. Here are a couple shots from our big day.


Any guesses as to what we are totally into right now? Oh and yes, I made the cake. Love my Scooby and Shaggy (Shacky as little one says) but my writing skills on the cake need a lot of work.

I have a million things to share and now that a lot has settled down I will be posting all the craziness that I have gotten myself into these last couple months.


But today we are just wishing my baby happy birthday.

TAKING A BREAK

I have really been thinking long and very hard about this over the past week and I have come to the conclusion that I need to take a break from blogging.

It will probably be a short one but a much needed one. Lately things have just been way to crazy in my life.

First I have a child that always seems to be sick. This is both mentally and emotionally exhausting and I have no clue how to fix it.

Second Luke goes back to school in almost two weeks. We really need to start getting ready for the new school year and organized for all that goes along with school. The amount of work increased a great deal from Kindergarten to First grade and I am expecting another increase as we head into second grade.

Third, my garden is in full crazy mode. I never do learn! I have pulled probably 200 cucumbers from the garden already and they just keep coming. Giving them away right and left, made 12 jars of pickles and lots of cucumber salad but still have way to many. My tomato's are probably in the surplus of 200, they are just all green and will probably all turn red at the same time. I really don't want any of this to go to waist so I will be canning and doing what I can to get the most out of my crazy garden.

Fourth, soccer season is starting. I am really hoping that burning up some of Luke's energy will help with his mood. I sometimes think kids really need to be active and not get board or they start to struggle. These days I think Luke just needs more to do. So bring on the soccer.

Finally, my house. It seems the only way I can get my husband working on it is if I start something and he then jumps in to help because he doesn't like how I do things. This summer was supposed to be the year, the rotten old well was to be removed from the front yard, the rotten old porch ripped off the front, a new door installed in a new location, new porch railing, and siding was to start. Yet, we have not done any of these things. I think it is because of the heat that we have not done a lot of it but I am on a mission and if I have to get out their and rip that old porch off myself, so be it.

Since, I have all of these things on my plate right now I have decided a break is needed. I might struggle with this since often times I blog on my lunch hour at work (doing that now). Who knows my lunch time might bring me around to do some reading but I really am going to try and stop blogging for the next month or so. Just until I feel like my life finds a good place again and I feel like lots more things are getting done these days. So for now, I will really miss all of you but will let you know the minute I am back in full swing.


As a side note about Luke, thank you all for your thoughts on him. I am really trying with him and it is a challenge these days. Home life has not changed, the only real change we had was the new sitter for the summer. He did learn some things from older kids this summer that I did not like but he is a good kid and does know the difference between what is write and wrong. Soccer starts this week, we only have two more weeks at the sitters and school starts so I am really hoping when we get back to a busier routine things will get better. Lets hope anyway!!!

Growing Up

Can someone tell me how it happens? Why must they grow up?

These days I am missing my sweet little boy.
This little boy who use to be so happy and full of love.

He was such a mommy's boy!
He wanted to do everything with mommy & always there helping out.

Excited about the next adventure that life would bring, the next fun thing.

Always so happy and on the go.....

Where did he go????

It seems these days that happy little boy who I miss dearly has grown up.
Don't misunderstand, he is still here, he is still loved very much, he has just changed, he has changed in a very big way.

While he is only 7, it seems he has this built up anger and it all started this summer. Not real sure where it has all come from but he has closed himself off. He has a bad attitude most of the time, he is very mean to me more than anyone.

We are really struggling these day to get along. Every night I hug him and tell him how much I love him but the rest of the time we are doing nothing but butting heads. I can't seem to break down the attitude or get past the aggression that he has.

Is this just a phase that he is going through? Part of the aging process? Are these learned things from the world around him? Whatever it is, it is very new to me and very hard for me to accept. I want that happy, loving and sweet little boy back. I miss him so much!!!!